Supreme Court Refuses To Regularise West Bengal Madarsa Employees; No Grant-in-Aid Benefits

The Supreme Court has dismissed a batch of petitions filed by teachers and non-teaching employees of Madarsas in West Bengal seeking regularisation of their appointments and payment of salaries under the State Government’s grant-in-aid scheme.

A Bench of Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Augustine George Masih held that none of the petitioners established a case warranting relief. Court scrutinised the cases of 13 representative petitioners out of more than 350 petitioners to determine whether any of them were entitled to relief.

None of the 13 petitioners could substantiate their claims, the Bench held. Accordingly, the Court rejected not only the claims of the 13 representative petitioners but held the entire batch of writ petitions lacked merit.

The 350 teachers had challenged the denial of regularised appointment and payment under the State government’s grant-in-aid scheme by a committee constituted by the top court in 2023.

The Supreme Court committee in 2023, had examined the claims for regularisation and extension of grant-in-aid benefits to teachers and non-teaching staff of recognised Madarsas in the State.

The dispute pertained to the West Bengal Madrasah Service Commission Act, 2008, which created a statutory commission to recommend appointments of teachers in recognised Madrasas. In 2014, a single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court struck down the Act and said decision was affirmed by a Division Bench in 2015.

In 2024, the Supreme Court had protected the petitioners' services through an interim order. Later in May 2025, it directed the State to pay salaries to those petitioners who were actually discharging teaching duties, subject to further orders.

Case Title: Najma Khatun Vs State of West Bengal; Md Mir Mosarraf Hossain, Samina Yeasmin, Mastara Khatun, Sahana Khatun Vs Directorate of Madrasah Education

Bench: Justices Datta and Masih

Judgment Date: July 13, 2026